| The I-Thou instant:
Each of us is an expression; a uniquely shaped poem with our own cadences. Each, expressing some aspect of The Divine. This is why, each person is so valuable. It is a collection of poems God is making. The theme, is Himself.
No one is meaningless. This is because God does not write foolish poetry. Each creature is special to Him, a vibrant explosive pronouncement of some aspect of Himself. A radical moment or instant of His Being, we are! Never think yourself un-special in life. That, in short, is a lack of faith or knowledge of who God is. Does even a single sparrow fall, without Him noticing, and noting her age, tones of color, and feather number? He notices because He created that particular being, and somehow, each being exist in Him, and represents Him; and, mysteriously, is a symbolic extension of Him. So, you, being a human, made in His likeness–do you really think that your being does not matter to your Creator?
Do not give in to lesser voices. He who created you, is also able to pronounce you!
He who wrote the poem you are, is also able to proclaim and even have a poetry reading of that poem to all of creation. Don’t block him, because of puny opinions of yourself. Who are you to retreat. Who are you to say that this particular poem, unlike all others, is not worthy of being read. How pretentious.
Who do we think we are, refusing His Graces. Who do we think we are saying to the God of the universe, you can pronounce all other poems but not this one–because I am too messed up, too experientially discarded, too gruesome to shine. How selfish of us.
We are God’s art-period. And He will finish His art until everyone comes to His opening!
Deep to deep. God just wants to see Himself uninterruptedly. That we would BE His symbols of Himself. To commune with Himself; to dwell in His own Being. We are His partners in this. He sees through us. And what does He see? Himself, in other beings. God wants to bear witness to Himself through us. That is the metaphysical Reality.
We are His instances, His Poems. But it is He who comes down and enters us, in order to behold Himself. Deep calls and beholds deep! That is His Spirit encounter His Spirit through us. That IS the universe really, and all else is interruption.
Identity is basically the contours of our being when God Himself is channeling through us. He is bearing witness to Himself. And He is making an uninterrupted expression of Himself.
This is the new creation.
God is One and His expression of Himself will be One! We are part of this expression. The whole story is almost like God wanting to make art, and look at it.
God just wanted to make art and look at it, through us! That is the universe: God looking at Himself through His creatures. Deep to deep. Poem to poem. All else will burn off. He wants to be able to peer through us at Himself, in other. What a great dramatic move on His part.
And, even our healing is less about us, than about “cleansing the lens of perception” of all of His creation, so it can behold itself “in Him”, and through Him.
This is identity looking at Identity. When we see, as we are Seen–by Him. This is our practice on earth-to perceive one another and all of creation, as He does. So we are constantly cleansing or renewing our perceptions in His Spirit in order to see as He sees. And then to join in making things into the image which He sees. And that is the work with the cities and nations as well as individuals. We are ministering with Him into His Own symbolic. We are joining His ongoing labor to integrate and make whole the imagination with the rest of the identity.
We want to be “in” His perception, so we can see as He sees, and by so doing, heal what is seen. This applies to people and cities etc. To join God in His perception of His people, cities and nations. To join Him in His symbolic life in dialogue with the symbolic dimension of what He created–that is the task of missional artist. If we want to minister into the symbolic or cultural aspects, we need to know God in His Symbolic self, and then partner with Him in ministering into the symbolic aspects of what He has created–this is ministering into the symbolic. God wants to see through us. And the act of healing is often just or simply seeing accurately. Seeing what He sees.
To see into someone is a healing act, if we see as He sees. He wants to see through us. And He wants to see Himself. When we see, from Him into Him, it is a Self encounter. God’s Self (I am) encountering Itself. That is the act of prophecy, and that is the true action of beholding. That is the I-Thou instant.
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